In our previous six-part series, we explored how Thích Nhất Hạnh’s Engaged Buddhism developed amid the devastation of wars in Vietnam. In Part 1, we traced the roots of his vision, shaped by his early monastic training and studies, as well as exposure to secular subjects at university. Part 2 examined the influence of his personal struggles to renew Vietnamese Buddhism and his overseas experiences.
Part 3 detailed his humanitarian efforts during the Vietnam War—such as co-founding Vạn Hạnh University, the School of Youth for Social Service, and the Order of Interbeing—and his unwavering commitment to nonviolence and forgiveness, even in the face of threat and death. Part 4 discussed his interfaith engagement during his 1966 peace tour to the West and how he deepened his practice during his challenging early years in exile in France. Parts 5 and 6 highlighted six key characteristics of his Engaged Buddhism as it developed during wartime Vietnam.
Now, we turn to Thích Nhất Hạnh’s post-war years, when he had already settled in France. We will first look at his rescue efforts after the Vietnam War, and then explore how he adapted his engaged teachings and practices to the very different social and cultural contexts in the West.
Rescue efforts after the Vietnam War
After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, Thích Nhất Hạnh, who had by then settled in France, turned his attention to rescuing Vietnamese refugees, known as “boat people,” who fled the country by sea in search of safety. (Swearer 2010)
In the following year, while attending a conference in Singapore, he and his companions rented two large ships to rescue these boat people, who risked their lives on overcrowded, fragile boats in rough seas. They succeeded in saving a few hundred boat people in the Gulf of Thailand, but their efforts angered the Singaporean government. As a result, they were forced to stop their operations and could not assist the rescued boat people in landing safely in Guam or Australia. (Thích Nhất Hạnh 1993, 2016)
Fortunately, in the final critical moment, Thích Nhất Hạnh and his group managed to bring the boat people to safety, rather than leaving them to die at sea. Their efforts also drew international attention to the desperate situation of the boat people, prompting several governments to increase their quotas for accepting them as refugees. (Thích Nhất Hạnh 1993, 2016)
Reflecting on this experience, Thích Nhất Hạnh wrote that his group’s rescue work was only possible because of their continued mindfulness practice during those difficult times:
During those days, we practiced sitting and walking meditation, and eating our meals in silence in a very concentrated way. We knew that without this kind of discipline, we would fail in our work. The lives of many people depended on our mindfulness practice. (Thích Nhất Hạnh 2016)
Mindfulness, for him, was not separate from action but the very ground that sustained it. Through meditation, he and his companions were able to remain steady, compassionate, and clear-minded amid chaos and danger. This experience reaffirmed his conviction that true peace work begins within, through the cultivation of mindful awareness and inner clarity.
Five-year retreat and the founding of Plum Village
Subsequently, Thích Nhất Hạnh entered a five-year retreat at the Sweet Potato Hermitage, which he co-founded in 1975 near Paris. During this time, he focused on deepening his meditation practice and writing. (Plum Village n.d.-b, Powers 2016, Unified Buddhist Church 2016)
Initially, only a small community resided at the hermitage. But as more people joined their practice over time, the space soon became too small to welcome everyone. To accommodate the growing community, Thích Nhất Hạnh bought land in southern France, where, in 1982, he and his colleagues established Plum Village. (Plum Village n.d.-b, Powers 2016)
Plum Village follows the Zen tradition of bringing meditation into every part of daily life. Rather than being limited to formal sitting, ordinary activities such as washing, cooking, walking, and working are all seen as opportunities to practice mindfulness. (Powers 2016) Drawing on data from my PhD fieldwork, later articles will explore in greater detail how the Plum Village community incorporated meditation into their everyday routines.
Global expansion of the Plum Village community
Over the years, Plum Village in France has grown into the largest Buddhist monastery in the West, with more than 200 monks and nuns living there. (Plum Village n.d.-a, Thích Nhất Hạnh 2017) Since 2000, 10 other monasteries and practice centers in the Plum Village tradition have been established around the world—three in the United States, three in Europe, and four in the Asia-Pacific region.
In the US, these include Blue Cliff Monastery, Deer Park Monastery, and Magnolia Grove Monastery. In Europe, the tradition founded the European Institute of Applied Buddhism in Germany, along with Healing Spring Monastery and Maison de l’Inspir in France.
In the Asia-Pacific region, there are Thai Plum Village (Thailand), the Asian Institute of Applied Buddhism (Hong Kong), Stream Entering Monastery (Australia), and Mountain Spring Monastery (Australia). Altogether, the Plum Village monastic community comprises more than 600 monks and nuns worldwide. (Thích Nhất Hạnh 2016)
The global expansion of the Plum Village community reflects the wide resonance and adaptability of Thích Nhất Hạnh’s teachings. Through mindfulness practice, these communities nurture understanding, compassion, and peace across cultures, demonstrating how mindful living can be realized in everyday life.
Reaching young people
In addition to establishing monasteries and mindfulness practice centers worldwide, Thích Nhất Hạnh also made mindfulness more accessible to young people in the last two decades of his life.
In 2008, he launched Wake Up, a global community of people aged 18–35 to practice mindfulness together and help create a more compassionate and sustainable society. (Unified Buddhist Church 2016, Wake Up International 2021)
Two years later, he founded Wake Up Schools, which offers mindfulness training to educators, enabling them to bring these practices into classrooms and support students’ well-being. (Thích Nhất Hạnh 2017, Wake Up Schools 2022)
The importance of reaching young people is also evident in the annual summer retreat at Plum Village in France, which includes separate programs designed specifically for children and for teenagers.
During his return to Vietnam in 2005, Thích Nhất Hạnh reportedly emphasized that the Plum Village practices were presented in ways suitable for young people and intellectuals in the West. (Fleet, cited in Chapman, 2007) This approach stemmed from what he and his associates had witnessed in Western society. As his student Chân Không explains:
. . . many people in the West yearn for understanding and love. Many Western children are exposed to physical and sexual abuse, often from parents who are addicted to alcohol or who are psychologically disturbed. Many of the stories that we’ve heard over the years from retreat participants have moved us deeply. No one has dropped any bombs on these people, but their hearts are battlefields, torn apart by the bombs of cruelty and ignorance. This kind of suffering can be even more painful than the lack of physical nourishment. (Chân Không 2007)
Thích Nhất Hạnh sought to offer younger generations a path of healing and transformation by making mindfulness accessible to them. These initiatives responded to the psychological and emotional suffering he and his community witnessed in the West, which differed greatly from the wartime and postwar conditions of Vietnam. Recognizing this, he adapted his engaged teachings and practices to address the distinctive forms of suffering found in Western society.
Conclusion
In the years following the war, Thích Nhất Hạnh adapted his Engaged Buddhism beyond its origins in Vietnam, broadening its focus for a global audience. His humanitarian actions, contemplative retreat, and the founding of Plum Village all reflected a deepening of the same insight: mindfulness as both a source of inner clarity and a way of compassionate action.
By extending his teachings to younger generations and diverse communities around the world, he carried forward the spirit of engagement into new contexts. His post-war life demonstrated how the practice of mindfulness can continually respond to changing forms of human suffering.
The next article will further examine how Thích Nhất Hạnh’s Engaged Buddhism was adapted in the West and the criticisms it has received.
References
Chân Không. 2007. Learning True Love: Practicing Buddhism in a Time of War. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press.
Chapman, John. 2007. “The 2005 pilgrimage and return to Vietnam of exiled Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh.” In P. Taylor (Ed.), Modernity and Re-enchantment: Religion in Post-revolutionary Vietnam (pp. 297–341). Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Plum Village. n.d.-a. Retreats at Plum Village. Retrieved from https://plumvillage.org/retreats/visiting-us/
Plum Village. n.d.-b. The life story of Thích Nhất Hạnh. Retrieved from https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/biography/
Powers, John. 2016. “Thích Nhất Hạnh.” In J. Powers (Ed.), The Buddhist World (pp. 606–16). New York: Routledge.
Swearer, Donald. 2010. Religion, world order, and peace: Buddhist responses. Cross Currents, 60(3), 314–18.
Thích Nhất Hạnh. 1993. Love in Action: Writings on Nonviolent Social Change. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press.
Thích Nhất Hạnh. 2016. At Home in the World: Stories and Essential Teachings from a Monk’s Life. London: Penguin Random House.
Thích Nhất Hạnh. 2017. The Other Shore: A New Translation of the Heart Sutra with Commentaries. Berkeley, CA: Palm Leave Press.
Unified Buddhist Church. 2016. Timeline: Calligraphic meditation: The mindful art of Thích Nhất Hạnh. Retrieved from
http://www.thichnhathanhcalligraphy.org/newyork/timeline/
Wake Up International. 2021. About Wake Up. Retrieved from https://wkup.org/about/
Wake Up Schools. 2022. What is Wake Up Schools? Retrieved from https://wakeupschools.org/about-us/what-is-wake-up-schools/
Related features from BDG
Thích Nhất Hạnh’s Engaged Buddhism During Wartime Vietnam, Part 1
Thích Nhất Hạnh’s Engaged Buddhism During Wartime Vietnam, Part 2
Thích Nhất Hạnh’s Engaged Buddhism During Wartime Vietnam, Part 3
Thích Nhất Hạnh’s Engaged Buddhism During Wartime Vietnam, Part 4
Thích Nhất Hạnh’s Engaged Buddhism During Wartime Vietnam, Part 5
Thích Nhất Hạnh’s Engaged Buddhism During Wartime Vietnam, Part 6
